#platformer postmortem

🕹️ Platformer Development – Postmortem

This week, I developed a basic platformer game using GDevelop. I implemented keyboard controls, platforms, enemies, and core mechanics like jumping, walking, and collisions. Using the Event Editor, I learned how to trigger animations (Jump, Walk, Idle) and set up enemy movement logic with direction flipping and collision handling.

✅ What Went Well

Built a functioning game loop with player movement and enemy interaction.

Applied conditions and events effectively to manage animations and collisions.

Learned to manipulate game logic visually without coding.

Integrated responsive sprite behaviors such as enemy flipping and animation changes.

⚠️ What Could Be Improved

Enemy movement is too basic—only flipping direction at borders. It could be enhanced with more dynamic behaviour.

Collision consequences feel abrupt; visual/audio feedback would improve the experience.

Hi everyone,

I just draw my character for my boom birds, they look quite dumb and not professional, and i try to let my character (Player) can use gun to shoot the birds, chickens, ducks which i updated. But now I'm fixing the problem that I want these enemies can drop the boms randomly, and "Player" need to avoid all of that. One game will have 10 bullets or more, and 2 lifes, and I try to draw some background to let it not too boring when player play it, such as, clouds grass.

In terms of the Inspiration for my prototype, I barely had any idea until I found one line from Fullerton's book telling me that I could design games based on life experience. This reminded me of the old days when I was a little kid jumping on the trampolines. Thus, a hardcore platformer came up, requiring intensive timing to jump.

Fairly saying, I prioritized the prototype before working on my elevator pitch first due to the concern of advertising what I may fail to offer, resulting in the uncertainty of the ultimate demonstration. Although I should have completed the pitch first in order to create my prototype efficiently, as the tutor mentioned, you should prioritize the core gameplay before adding other components.

I am actually surprised my game turned out pretty okay (mostly glad that it's playable). When i first came up with the prototype idea, i planned for it to be a simple yet enjoyable game that i could expand on in the future once i gained more skills from my uni course, but for a first time making/prototyping a game, it went better than i thought. As i mentioned, i love games that evoke powerful emotions such as happiness, sadness or even excitement. In the future i would love to incorporate that into my game idea, achieving the element of surprise we learnt in our IGB120 lecture 4.

Improvements i would make for the future would definitely be to work on my coding and understanding GDevelop's functions as i believe that hindered my ability to make the game the most. I also feel like i could get more playtesters and different perspectives; comparing the different experiences. Playtesters who have experience/ don't or those with different interests. Fullerton suggests "rules before you playtest" such as 'playtest before you think you are ready'. This suggests to playtest on the prototype in progress rather than a completed work, as this a better way to improve the game.

I'd love to create something more original for my future games. As cute as the free assets were, i believe there were details id like to add that could improve the overall visual design of the prototype, however, i would need to improve on my skills before achieving this. I’d also refine the level design. Even though this is just a prototype, it would be great to have a more polished layout. While the simplicity is intentional, I believe I can make it more engaging while still keeping it accessible.

Overall, i enjoyed the prototyping and playtesting experience of my first game and I can't wait to improve my skills to make better games.

Game Introduction This is a 2D game based on platform jumping mechanism. Players can stand on the platform that matches their color by switching colors. By constantly switching colors, players have to jump, solve puzzles, and avoid enemies （such as slimes） in the level. Once they step on the wrong color platform or are hit by an enemy, the game is over.

What Went Well The character switching mechanism is quite interesting The overall feedback of the Game Over interface is good.

The slime can automatically move back and forth, flip direction, and detect collisions, and its behavior is stable.

The style of the background, characters, platforms and other materials is unified, and the visual effect is harmonious.

What Could Be Better

The game lacks voice acting or background music, and there are no special effects when the characters die, which is a bit abrupt.

Lacks complete level design and advanced gameplay and will consider adding more colors and puzzle gameplay later.

Temporary future plans Add background music, sound effects, special effects.

Add more color platforms, more characters and enemy types.

Allow characters to sprint, attack and more operations

Introduce a score system and clearance process to build a complete level.

By Shannon Tetley

In this post I'm going to talk about my thoughts on the platformer game I made now I've moved on from the project for now. It served its purpose which was to teach me how to use Gdevelop but I don't think its very good as a game. People who have play tested it for me have a less harsh opinion but from my point of view its very obvious that it was a rush job. This doesn't mean it was a failure though as I did learn a lot from making it.

What aspects of my required reading did I apply to the project?

Not a lot if I'm honest. Not that the readings didn't inspire me though. I was very focused on the basics so I didn't implement much of what I learned from readings but it did give me plenty of ideas. The readings taught me lots of game design practices that I would apply to the game if I were to work on it some more.

I've had a few ideas of what I would change now that I've read up on the topic of game design:

I would add a title screen to the game to invite the player into the world and to build their interest.

Playtesting revealed that having a linear path through the world helped lessen the mental burden on the player allowing them to better engage with the jumping challenges.

I would pay close attention to the 'feel' of the jumping challenges. I learned that a challenging obstacle isn't the same as a good obstacle. I made some interesting and challenging platforms to navigate but because there was a little jank with the way you jump through them the players didn't like it.

Overall polish the game more. I think some better animations would improve the feel of jumping and dying. Balancing the game more would help as the game is a little trivial as is. Playtesters didn't die once and they missed out on seeing my death animation which I believe would have added to the feel of the game for them.

What's one thing I'd change about my development approach?

By Shannon Tetley

In this post I'm going to talk about my thoughts on the platformer game I made now I've moved on from the project for now. It served its purpose which was to teach me how to use Gdevelop but I don't think its very good as a game. People who have play tested it for me have a less harsh opinion but from my point of view its very obvious that it was a rush job. This doesn't mean it was a failure though as I did learn a lot from making it.

What aspects of my required reading did I apply to the project?

Not a lot if I'm honest. Not that the readings didn't inspire me though. I was very focused on the basics so I didn't implement much of what I learned from readings but it did give me plenty of ideas. The readings taught me lots of game design practices that I would apply to the game if I were to work on it some more.

I've had a few ideas of what I would change now that I've read up on the topic of game design:

I would add a title screen to the game to invite the player into the world and to build their interest.

Playtesting revealed that having a linear path through the world helped lessen the mental burden on the player allowing them to better engage with the jumping challenges.

I would pay close attention to the 'feel' of the jumping challenges. I learned that a challenging obstacle isn't the same as a good obstacle. I made some interesting and challenging platforms to navigate but because there was a little jank with the way you jump through them the players didn't like it.

Overall polish the game more. I think some better animations would improve the feel of jumping and dying. Balancing the game more would help as the game is a little trivial as is. Playtesters didn't die once and they missed out on seeing my death animation which I believe would have added to the feel of the game for them.

What's one thing I'd change about my development approach?

After completing my first game in Gdevelop, I have learnt what Gdevelop does and how to make my own game in it.

I have also learnt a lot from the book Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games by Tracy Fullerton : A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, Fourth Edition by Tracy Fullerton. This book has inspired me a lot when I was deisgning Planet X and I will list them out as follow:

First two chapters: I have learnt the importance of playtesting and prototyping for game designers. Therefore, in order to ensure I am able to deliver a smooth and interacting game experience to the players, several playtesting and prototypes have been done.

Chapter 3(Working with Formal Elements): I have learnt to define the player's role in game clearly. For Planet X, the player's role is to help Zyrahn to eat as many alien enemies as possible.

Chapter 4: I have learnt about considering dramatic elements when designing games, such as setting up a story and theme for my games. For Planet X, I have set up the story of Zyrahn and what he encountered in the mysterious planet.

Chapter 5: I have learnt about system dynamics in game design. In Planet X, blocks are placed in random positions around. Players can jump between different blocks , some of them are close/far between each other, while some of them are high/low between each other. The player must stay on the platform to survive.

Chapter 7 & 8: This chapter is about prototypinig. In order to have the ideas on how to design and develop my game, I have done some prototypes for my game. Some refinements were made during prototyping before I came out with the final version of my game.

I sketched out prototype ideas of my gameplay concepts. According to the book, prototypes can be completed by simple sketches physically or digitally. In order to make refinements or move objects easier, I did my prototype on a tablet computer.

According to chapter 7, refinement is the time to add all good ideas for features that have come up while testing. My first version of my prototype is platfroms will be placed on about same level with different heights. I realise the game could be more fun to have platforms all around. This allows the player to reach platfroms at different height and levels; thus enhances the player experience and make it flow.